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Annotated Bibliography

Ariana Rojas 

University of Central Florida

ENC 1102: English Composition

Professor Mooney 

March 15, 2019

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Barlas Bozkuş, Ş. (2016). Pop polyvocality and internet memes: As a reflection ofsocio-Political

discourse of turkish youth in social media. Uluslararası Hakemli İletişim ve Edebiyat

Araştırmaları Dergisi/International Peer-Reviewed Journal of Communication and

Humanities Research, 10, 540–565. Retrieved from

https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2018973069&authtype=shib&site=ehost-live&scope=site

The article investigates the use of visual rhetoric in the form of internet memes as a type

of activism in the political arena. The article ensures to thoroughly explain what a meme

is and presents several examples of its use in previous protest. The central idea of this

article surrounds a case study of the Gezi Park movement in Turkey. This movement was

a protest against the Istanbul Municipality’s renovation plans for Taksim Square. The

study focuses on the use of social media and meme activism to bring attention to their

movements message. There were six different types of memes that were observed during

the Gezi Park movement. The first involved a relationship with people and power. They

would use images that were previously associated with strength such as the “Woman in

Red” and editing it in such a way to fit their protest. The next type of meme is Popular

Culture references, which transform popular bits from TV shows or movies such as Game

of Thrones to support their movement by adding things such as gas masks. The third type

of meme included the destruction of languages and icons, while the fourth type created

memes from historical artifacts. The fifth type of meme featured the resisting penguin’s

aspect of the protest. The penguins became the mascot of the movement, and they created

several memes out of them. Lastly, the sixth type of meme includes advertising poster

which creatively incorporated protest messages into ads. The case study concluded that
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the use of meme activism has allowed the movement to create a more open

communication for controversial topics and allow for alternative voices to be heard.

Through close examination of my synthesis matrix, I have realized that my article

by Bozkus shares several themes to my other articles. To begin with, even though the

article does not explicitly state that is focuses on minorities, it can be assumed that it does

as its case study looks at Turkish protester. This theme is shared by my articles by Fandis

as well as Wren, since they discuss women. Another common I have identified is the

articles focus on social media. While the article by Bozkus mainly focuses on memes,

the articles by Wren and by Fandis highlight the importance of the use of social media in

protest top further the conversation of the movement, which still coincides as memes are

posted on social media. The study by Bozkus identifies the different types of memes as

visual rhetoric unlike my other sources where it had to be implied. However, one gap I

found is that this article only focuses on the use of memes and social media as an aid in

protest. Through my research I will use this information about the benefits of social

media protest to support my primary research in regard to the social media section.

Moreover, I will close the gap by using my primary research as well as the other

secondary sources to compare the effectiveness to other forms of rhetoric such as

costumes and posters top the social media protest seen in this article. This will allow me

to determine which is most effective to convey the movements message.

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Downs, D., & Wardle, E. (2019). Rhetoric: Making sense of human interaction and meaning-

making. Writing About Writing. Boston, MA: Bedford, St. Martins. The central idea of

this article is to educate students about what rhetoric is, what makes it up, and how it is

used in our everyday life. The article begins by defining rhetoric and essentially saying

while it has several definitions in this class it is defined as how we humans communicate

and create meaning. He then addresses that rhetoric begins with our nonverbal body

language. Thus, concluding that our body is just as important as our minds in regard to

communication. The author then explains the how rhetoric impacts human interaction.

Motivation is the first element discussed, which clarifies that all rhetoric is driven by a

reason or desire. Next Downs talks about ecology and how it sets up a rhetorical

situation for the conversation to take place, as well as creates other unexpected rhetors.

Knowledge making is discussed after and explained to contribute to rhetoric as

conversation is not just a transfer of information, it allows for the building of new

information with previously known information. After Downs discusses how all rhetoric

is a narrative because conversation is a form of storytelling to understand the before and

after. He then expresses how rhetorical appeal benefits the rhetoric as it allows for

information to be seen in your perspective. One can do this by the use of emotions, logic,

and how credible we seem. Lastly, Downs highlights identification as a vital rhetorical

element as it allows the receiver of information to connect with it. Finally, Downs

discusses the five steps of rhetorical composition which include: thinking of what to say,

determining what/how the information should be presented, deciding what style of

information delivery best fits your audience, remembering the information and delivering

the information.
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Through my synthesis matrix I have determined that this article is more centered

of the English composition aspect of my paper. However, there are still a few of my

secondary sources that share common themes as this article. This article by Doug Downs

falls into my writing/ rhetoric theme as it focuses on defining rhetoric and how we use it

in conversation. While my secondary source by Johns focuses on discourse communities

and my other source by Endres & Senda-Cook is about space/place rhetoric, they both

still fall under the writing and rhetoric them just like the article by Downs. One gap that I

have found between this article and my research is that while it informs about rhetoric it

does not mention my discourse community which is minority protesters. This gap

however does not mean the source is not useful. I will use it in my paper to frame the

other articles that do not explicitly identify the different forms of protest as rhetoric

which will allow me to link those sources to my research question as it will provide with

support for my identifications of rhetoric.

Drüeke, R., & Zobl, E. (2015). Online feminist protest against sexism: The German-language

hashtag #aufschrei. Feminist Media Studies, 16(1), 35–54. doi:

10.1080/14680777.2015.1093071 The main idea of this article is to investigate the

responses to the feminist hashtag, “#aufschrei,” when it was posted on twitter and

feminist blogs. This study used two types of experiments: quantitative and qualitative.

The Twitter data that was analyzed was only from the first seven weeks after the hashtag

was posted. The study ended up reviewing about 153,158 tweets. The quantitative portion

of the experiment provided a overview of the subject being researched, as it allowed the

study to develop themes. The researchers found 6 themes and put them on a chart then

each week (of the seven weeks) they would write down how many tweets they found that
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would fit those themes. In regard to the qualitative experiment, they used the quantitative

results to create three categories: actors, situations, and type of assault. They found that

the hashtag was most used on twitter to speak out about sexual assault. They also found

that there were several antifeminist and sexist using this hashtag to belittle it. They

concluded while twitter gives feminist protesters a vast and responsive audience to their

message, it does not provide a completely safe space as haters can respond with negative

content.

The synthesis matrix has allowed me to identify that this article shares common

themes such as minority protest, and social media to my other secondary sources. The

secondary sources by Fandis, Bozkus, and Wren all focus on minority groups just like his

article by Drüeke & Zobl. This article is most similar to the Fandis and Wren sources as

all them discuss protest that involve women’s rights and empowerment. While Drüeke &

Zobl do not identify women as minorities just like the rest of the sources I have

mentioned above, it can be implied that they all fit into the same discourse community of

minorities. Another aspect that this article shares with my other secondary sources is that

studies social media as a form of protest similarly to my sources by Fandis, Bozkus, and

Wren. One gap that I have noticed is that it does not clearly identify the use of hashtag

activism as a type of rhetoric. I plan on filling the first gap by utilizing my source by

Downs to frame the audience to understand why I have identified the hashtag activism as

a form of rhetoric. Regardless of the gap the article will be useful to support my primary

research when I discuss the result of my survey in regard to the questions about using

social media as a form of protest.

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Endres, D., & Senda-Cook, S. (2011). Location matters: The rhetoric of place in protest. The

Quarterly Journal of Speech, 97(3), 257–282.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2011.585167 The central idea of this article is to

explain how the location of a social protest can create meaning and further goals of their

movement. This is also known as space and place rhetoric. The writer identifies 3 unique

was place rhetoric can be used to create meaning. First, protesters can use preexisting

meaning of a place to strengthen their causes message. Second, a movement can

reconstruct the meaning of a location. Third, reconstructing the meaning of a location

repeatedly can lead for a new permanent meaning to be formed. Throughout the course of

the paper, the author begins by explaining what exactly space and place rhetoric is. The

author then follows by using previous studies to frame the paper, allowing the reader to

make a connection between his claims and previously established information. Next, the

author analyses the impact if place to create meaning for several past social movements.

Finally, the author uses his own observations gathered from 2 different protest to further

establish the importance of place rhetoric on protest.

Through examination of my synthesis matrix I have concluded that this source

shares some similarities to my other articles as it falls under the theme of writing/rhetoric.

As this article strictly focuses on place rhetoric in protest it is clear that it belongs in this

theme. This article is most similar with my source by downs as they both discuss rhetoric

and how it creates meaning. However, this article also coincides with the article by Johns

as they both fall under the writing/ rhetoric theme since they discuss the technical English

composition portion of my research. One gap that I have identified in this source is that it

does not specifically observe minority protest, as it studies the more general aspect of
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protest themselves. While my other sources are more specific and look at minority protest

not just protest, this source can still be useful. In my research I could use this source to

corroborate my primary research in any section that deals with the location of a protest

creating meaning for the movement.

Fadnis, D. (2017). Feminist activists protest tax on sanitary pads: Attempts to normalize conversations

about menstruation in India using hashtag activism. Feminist Media Studies, 17(6), 1111–1114.

https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2017.1380430 The main idea of this article is to demonstrate

how using the digital world as a platform for feminist protest with methods such as hashtag

activism can further a movements cause. This article particularly focuses on a protest occurring

in India against the government as it decided to put a 14% tax on menstrual products. The Indian

government expressed that these products were a luxury since women had “other options.” The

non-profit organization called launched #LahukaLagaan on Twitter as a form of protest. This

movement demanded menstrual products that were tax free. This hashtag spread like wildfire, as

it caught the attention of several comedians, and fashion models who joined their fight against

the Finance Minister. The hashtag not only went viral on twitter but also took over international

newspapers, and Indian news channels. It continued to spread multimodally to different social

media platforms in the form of memes, videos, etc. While the digital campaign did not

immediately reduce the tax on the menstrual products, it did open the doors for a comfortable

conversation about menstruation. 

Through my synthesis matrix I have discovered that this article shares several similarities

to my other articles. Fandis highlights themes in her article such as social media and minority

protest.  These themes are also discussed in my other secondary articles by Bozkus, as well as

Wren. All three of these articles focus on how social media has been used as a platform of
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protest. However, more specifically Bozkus and Fandis articles study protest messages via

hashtag activism or memes on Twitter. Both these articles stress that using social media as a

platform for protest has been essential to bringing attention to the protest’s message. Another

similarity between these sources is that they are all written about protest within a minority group.

Fandis discuses Indian women, Bozkus examines protest in the Middle East, and Wren studies

women’s protest. While all these articles do not specifically label themselves as minorities in

their articles, it can be implied. One gap that I found within these three articles is that they do not

identify the different protest styles as different forms of rhetoric. However, due to the knowledge

I have gained during class, as well as from my articles by Downs and Johns, I am able to identify

that the different kinds of protest discussed in the articles are in fact types of rhetoric that range

from visual rhetoric to post-racial rhetoric. My ability to distinguish between these will be useful

when connecting my secondary research to my primary research.

Gustainis, J. J., & Hahn, D. F. (1988). While the whole world watched: Rhetorical failures of

anti-war protest. Communication Quarterly, 36(3), 203–216.  The main idea of this article

is to highlight the protest methods that negatively affected the Antiwar Protest during

Vietnam. The author analyzed several different studies of public opinion in regard to the

anti-war protest. The researcher discovered that all of the articles investigated concluded

essentially the same things. First, they found that the protest was unsuccessful in

persuading the public to agree with them. Second, the protest was mostly viewed in a

negative light by Americans. Third, the researchers believed that the protesters increased

the support for the war by being creating a negative image for their cause. There were

several factors discussed in the article that aided in the downfall of their cause. One of
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them was the facts that the protesters essentially also revolted against the cultural norm,

as they embraced the hippie look. Another reason included the extremist tactics used to

protest that did not appeal to the majority of the American people. These issues were also

accompanied by violent protest such as arson and bombing. The protesters were found to

use obscenity and disrespect the American flag which did not sit well with the mass

public. The protest also alienated themselves from the political figure which lead to

difficulty finding support. Overall the researcher concluded that the antiwar protesters

mostly hurt their cause by using protesting tactics which satisfied them in the short term

rather than the long run.

Through looking at my synthesis matrix I have noticed that it does not fit into any

of my themes completely. This article is somewhat similar to my sources by Fandis,

Bozkus, and Wren as it discusses protest and investigates the different types of protest

genres used and informs about its effectiveness. However, this article is different from

those sources I previously stated because the study does not observe minorities. More

specifically, this article is very similar to my secondary source by Wren because they

both assess the protest genres that have negatively affected the movements message. This

article has a couple gaps that I plan on filling with my primary research and secondary

sources. The first gap is that the source is not about minority protest, as it is about the

Vietnam anti-war protest. The second gap I discovered is that the source does not clearly

identify the different types of protest as different forms of rhetoric. I plan of filling the

first gap in my research by simply using this source as support for my other sources that

do in fact involve my discourse community. The second gap will be filled by the use of
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framing with my source by Downs, which will explain why I am Identifying these as

different forms of rhetoric.

Johns, A.M., (1997) Discourse communities and communities of practice: Membership, conflict,

and diversity. Writing About Writing. Boston, MA: Bedford, St. Martins. The central idea

of this article is to inform students about what a discourse community, the characteristics

that makes it up, and examples of different communities. A discourse community is a

group of people that share a similar goals/values, a several genres of communication, and

a unique lexis. There are two types of communities: involuntary, which you are born into,

and voluntary, which you chose to participate in or have common values. The author then

goes into discussing different types of communities such as political, professional, and

academic. Within each section she gives insight to what makes up each community in

regard to lexis and genre. Lastly, the author educates about issues one may face when

participating in a discourse community such as issues with authority, diversity, cost

affiliation, and critique.

Through my synthesis matrix I have identified that this article falls under the

theme of writing/ rhetoric. This is one of the few of my secondary sources that does not

discuss protest in anyway. This article is similar to my sources by Downs and Endres &

Seda-Cook because they all go in depth on the technical aspects of English composition

that serve as the baseline for the rest of my paper. One gap I have found in regard to this

source is the fact that it does not mention my discourse community or my research topic.

As most of my sources do not blatantly identify themselves as minorities, this source will

aid me in framing the readers to understand that all these groups do in fact belong in the
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discourse community of minority protesters. This article will be helpful to my research as

it will allow me to combine the writing and rhetoric aspects of my paper to the topic.

Wrenn, C. (2019). Pussy grabs back: Bestialized sexual politics and intersectional failure in protest

Posters for the 2017 Women’s March. Feminist Media Studies, 19(6), 803–821.

https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1465107 The central idea of this article is to examine the

different types of rhetoric used in the 2017 Women's March and to determine if the protest

rhetoric promoted their message or caused a breach in solidarity. The article particularly focuses

of feline symbolism as it was very popular at the march and could be considered to not be

inclusive of all feminist.  It is considered not inclusive as some feminist may also be vegan and

not all women have a vagina, which is what the feline symbolism represents. In the article in

order to categorize the most popular forms of rhetoric for this protest, the author examined

photos from four different sources. The pictures collected that were found to have any feline

symbolism, whether it was in the form of text or image it was coded. The results showed that

feline themes were not as common on posters as predicted. Cat symbolism was present in

posters, 3.4%  of Women’s March on Washington Archives Project hosted by Open Science

Framework , 2.9% of Georgia State University’s digital Women’s Marches 2017 Collection

documenting the Atlanta march, 6.5% of the picture book Why I March , and  0.04% Instagram

images that were tagged with the women’s march (#womensmarch).

While this article does not solely focus on the use of social media as a form of protest like

my other articles, it does briefly examine hashtag activism.  The authors gather some of their

evidence through looking at #womensmarch on Instagram. This hashtag had thousands of results,

demonstrating that social media is in fact a useful platform for minority protest.  The group

studied in this article falls under the category of a minority as it focuses on women. This aspect
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of the article also coincides with my other secondary sources by Fandis and Bozkus. Once again,

the article does not blatantly express that the different forms of protest such as posters and

dressing up as cats, as types of rhetoric. Throughout my research I will close this gap through

using my other secondary sources such as Downs and Johns, as well as the knowledge about the

different types of rhetoric I have gained through class lessons. Lastly, since this article measures

how often each protest style was used and how effective it was to the message, I can use this

information in my primary research to determine which protest rhetoric most effectively creates

meaning for the protesters cause.